cover image Tracking Wild Chimpanzees in Kibira National Park

Tracking Wild Chimpanzees in Kibira National Park

Joyce Powzyk. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books, $13.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-688-06733-5

The straightforward title refers to incidents that do not begin until one quarter of the way into the book. The first part is devoted to Powzyk's arrival in the rain forests of Burundi, descriptions of the landscape, her bartering with a vendor and other details of East Africa. She repeats herself within a short span of text: ""We lit . . . lanterns, as the sun had already set,'' and ``Several candles were lit, as the sky was still dark.''The book's pace picks up when she and a companion actually begin to track the chimpanzees and finishes on a note about the global importance of the rain forest. This is an interesting idea from the outset, with much appeal for children, but it is bogged down by clumsy writing, belabored language and disorganization. The type is dense for the large-scale illustrations, although these realistic, well-delineated watercolors do carry an immediacy lost in the text. Ages 6-9. (March)